


This Magic Moment

by Roxygrl803



Category: One Direction (Band), The Sandlot (1993)
Genre: Boys Kissing, Except they are a little bit older, First Kiss, Innocent Louis, Kissing, Lifeguards, M/M, Self-Indulgent, The Sandlot AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 03:56:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7152077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roxygrl803/pseuds/Roxygrl803
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis loves Harry the lifeguard and takes matters into his own hands.</p><p>Louis is Squints and Harry is Wendy Peffercorn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Magic Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so the idea to write this came to me last weekend after having a few too many glasses of red wine with some friends. I was thinking about all the AU's where Louis and Harry would be so cute and this popped into my head. I literally hauled my ass out of bed to write the first two pages of this that same night (with many grammatical errors that I hopefully found and fixed by now). 
> 
> Obviously this is totally fake and not even completely my own as I took the premise from the movie The Sandlot. That being said, I think it is super cute and if you all seem to like it I might continue with this story and see where it leads (making it more of my own, of course).

Louis ‘Squints’ Tomlinson and his group of baseball riffraff were a sight to be seen but they were good, god-damn-it! They liked being the only baseball “team” that wasn’t really a team but knew how to play like one. They liked being a group of misfits that fit with each other. They had fun and they were good. They knew it and every other little league team in the county knew it. Hell, maybe the whole state of Florida knew it. The sandlot kids played all summer and dominated all fall and spring. Their determination is what made them so awesome. Plus, they had Joey. Joey was going places; he was going to make it. Past the high school team, past the college teams. He was going to make it to the big time. The major leagues. 

Most days they played until their arms were sore from throwing or their legs were sore from running. On this day it was both. The humidity had reached an all time high (at least in their minds) and they were too sore and too tired to run the bases and throw the ball. They needed a break, that’s when Louis suggested the community pool. Sure it was a little grimy and a little dingy, but HE would be there, guarding their lived.

HE was Harry Styles, lifeguard extraordinaire. He was about to be a junior and had been working at the pool for two summers now. He had enforced rules like ‘No running’ and ‘No diving’ for two years. Louis had watched him last year, oiling and whistling, oiling and whistling. He was obsessed. Well, if you want to call it that. In his eyes, he was just infatuated. Louis thought that was better but he couldn’t be sure.

One this particularly hot and humid day, the Sandlot kids were done playing. They had had too much baseball given the current climate conditions. Squints pushed his glasses up in his face and said, “Why don’t we call it a day and go to the pool.”

Joey looked and Niall. Niall looked and Liam. Liam looked at Squints, aka, Louis and shrugged. 

“Sounds like a good idea to me.”

This sentiment ricocheted back to Joey who decided that the community pool was the best idea given the current circumstance of 96 degrees and 60% humidity. They all ran to the pool, towels dragging and sunscreen in hand. Louis was the first to enter the pool deck after paying his required $1 entry fee.

There he was, in all his glory. Sitting atop the lifeguard chair watching over the kids and adults of their town. Harry Styles, tinted Ray-Bans covering his emerald eyes, whistle around his neck, red swim trunks riding up his toned thighs, cherry red lips and oiling himself up like he was welcoming skin cancer into his body. He had cut his hair just before summer had stared, as was his ritual. Grow it out all school year until it was ‘man-bun’ length and then cut it short for summer. 

Louis stared at him like he was staring at the sun, so bright that is was actually painful but too beautiful to look way. He had been staring at Harry like that for a long time, years and years. Longer than he cared to admit to himself, before he even knew what it meant. Pretty much since he was six and Harry was eight. 

The town was small, like, small small. There were only two elementary schools in the entire town and he was lucky enough to have gone to the same one as Harry Styles. He had a vivid memory of the first time he saw Harry Styles. Louis was on the playground chasing a girl who had just pushed him when he realized they had run onto the ‘big kids’ playground. As first graders they were not allowed on the third grade playground. Too big. Too dangerous. Just as he was about to yell at Jessie to turn around he caught sight of the kids on the jungle gym. One third grader was hanging upside down, knees bent around a metal bar above him. The boy’s hair was a dark, floppy mess hanging down long enough that Louis was sure if he saw him right side up his hair would be in his eyes. He was laughing with dimples popping out of his cheeks and his eyes were as green as the grass below him. Louis was infatuated from that moment on. He had stopped dead in his tracks and would have stayed there, watching Harry all day if not for a nosey girl shouting at him ‘Hey, you’re not allowed on this playground.’ 

Since that fateful day on the playground he had noticed Harry everywhere. Walking with his mom and older sister in the grocery store, talking with his friends after school, playing baseball on the weekends. That was the first reason Louis wanted to play baseball. He had hoped he could play with Harry. Of course, at the time he had begged his mom to join a team he hadn’t realized teams were made by age and he would never be on a team with Harry. Not that it mattered that he would never play ball with Harry. Harry had decided baseball wasn’t for him anymore when he got to high school and Louis watched him from the outfield of the middle school campus field next door to the high school. He would see Harry has a freshman, walking the halls from class to class, laughing with girls and studying out of a lifeguard training book. He saw Harry as a sophomore, carrying art pieces and talking to others about lifeguarding, trying to recruit. Next year, he wouldn’t have to look at Harry from the outfield at the middle school anymore. He would be a freshman and Harry would be a Junior. They would be back at the same school.

Luckily, joining baseball because of Harry turned out to be the best thing for Louis. He had found his group, his sandlot group, and the ten of them didn’t just become a team, they became a brotherhood. They weren’t fancy or ‘little league’ royalty. They were better than that and they had heart. Sure they made fun of his glasses and sometimes he wanted to strangle Liam for being a stickler for the rules but it was all in good fun. All out of love. He knew it wouldn’t last forever but he would take it as long as he could get it. 

“Earth to Squint!” Joey yelled snapping Louis out of his own flashback. 

He pushed his glasses frames back up his face, and looked at Joey incredulously. “What’d ya do that for?”

Joey held up a bottle of Hawaiian Tropic SPF 50.

“Sunscreen?” He asked. “You’ll burn. Plus, I know you like the smell.”

It was true, Louis loved the smell. It smelled like coconuts and The Keys. It made him feel glossy and exotic.

“Joey, Joey, Joey. Can’t you see my skin is an amazing caramel color,” He said proudly waving his hand up and down his body. “I don’t burn, I tan.” His constant attempt at an ego helped shadow his self-doubt. Joey just laughed and threw the bottle on the lounge chair. Niall followed suit and set his baseball glove on the same chair. Liam had started walking past a group of sophomore girls. He tried to act cool and suave. 

“Ladies,” He said, giving them a cool head nod before jumping into the pool, via a cannonball jump and splashing all of them with chlorinated water.

They screeched and cursed as they backed away from the water’s edge. All the boys from the team cackled and laugh and jumped into the pool with Liam. Louis had kept his glasses on but windshield-whippered them after coming up from the initial jump in.

The water felt nice and cool against their hot and sticky skin. They entire team was splashing and playing around in the shallow end having a gay old time and then Louis refocused his attention back on the lifeguard in the chair. He knew he didn’t have much time. Harry worked with another lifeguard named Eleanor and like, she was pretty or whatever but she was a SHE and Louis definitely only cared for HE’s

“Every day, all summer, There he sits, lotioning and oiling, oiling and lotioning,” Louis ‘Squints’ Tomlinson said to no one in particular. 

Harry scanned the pool, turning his head to Louis and the group. He gave a small smile and continued to scan, while running lotion into his bicep.

“Smiling and oiling. I can’t take it anymore!” He started to make his way to the stairs. “Move!” he said pushing he teammates out of the way.

Louis stepped out of the shallow end and marched over to the diving board to wait in line. He giggled and gave a smirk to his Sandlot crew as they watched on from the shallow end. 

“What’s he doing?”

“What’s going on?” 

“Who does he think he is?”

“Watching Harry everyday. I think he finally snapped.”

“I don’t know but that’s the deep end and Squints can’t swim!”

That wasn’t true. Louis could swim. He knew enough to stay alive of course, but he had never learned strokes and he never claimed to be a great swimmer. Most of the time, when his friends would want to do something stupid or daring related to water he would just say he wasn’t a strong swimmer. They didn’t need to know what that meant. Come on. He lived in Florida, he could swim. 

Louis didn’t care what they were thinking. He gave them a ‘watch me’ smile before taking his turn on the low dive. He stepped to the edge. Took off his glasses, clutching them tight in his fist and looked up at Harry in the stand. He knew Harry’s eyes were on him, even if he couldn’t see said eyes. He smiled and gave Harry a shy wave, attempting to hide his nerves. Harry responded with a cheerful, albeit, thin smile and wave back before scanning away again. Louis jumped.

Liam, Niall, and Joey, along with the rest of the team sprang into action. 

“Squints!” They all yelled in different tones and at different times. They swam towards the edge of the pool, racing to get out so they could rush to the deep end to try and save their drowning friend. Harry took note of the commotion and looked back at the diving board. Louis was nowhere to be found. Harry blew his whistle and jumped into the pool.

Louis had sunk to the bottom, glasses still clutched in his hand, bubbles escaping from his lips and nose. His eyes were closed and he silently prayed to the lifeguard gods that Harry be the first person to reach him. He could hear splashing and his friends screaming his name, well, it kinda sounded like his name, his nickname, at the surface of the water. Louis felt someone reach their arm around him. He broke the surface of the water and took the smallest breath he could manage without getting caught. 

“Get the backboard. Clear a space. Call 911.” Harry yelled from behind him in the water. Excellent. He had been rescued by Harry. The plan was to proceed. Once he was pulled onto the deck by Eleanore she stepped back and tried to make space for Harry. 

“You want your mask?” She asked Harry as he put the side of his face close to Louis lips. Louis held his breath so hard he though he might actually pass out.

“No time, no time,” Harry shouted back.

He grabbed Louis head, tilted it back and gave two breaths directly into Louis’ mouth. Nothing. He checked for a pulse and felt one, of course. Good thing Harry was good at his job. He really wasn’t planning on having CPR performed on him today. Harry went back to Louis’ mouth and blew another breath after breath, turning after each breath and putting the side of his face close to Louis lips again for a few seconds each time.

“Come on Squints,” Niall whispered.

“Squints, squints,” Liam chanted with quiet uncertainty.

“Come on man, come on.” Joey encouraged.

Harry had just gone in for another listen and Louis opened his eyes just enough to look at his friends and flash them a clever smile. They all looked confused. Eyes widened with a ‘what the hell’ expression on each of their faces.

Harry went in for another breath and Louis went in with his tongue. He grabbed the back of Harry’s head and began kissing him, full on. It was magical. Harry tasted like he looked, sexy and amazing. Louis was in heaven. 

Harry, of course, startled and tried to pull away. After another good two second he was able to break free and he grabbed Louis by his wrist dragging him along the pool deck towards the exit. The team ran along behind them, shouting at Harry to ‘let Squints go’ and ‘way to go Squints.’ Liam stopped by the lounge chair where they had dropped their stuff and scooped up as much as he could, knowing they would have to send someone back to get the rest later. All of them ran like hell as soon as Harry tossed Louis onto the grass outside.

Once they were a safe distance away, Niall stopped him. “Hey here are your glasses. Did you plan that?”

“Course I did. Been wanting to do that for years.”

Niall ran ahead to tell the others and Louis circled back. He stood outside the chain-linked fence and stared up at the lifeguard in the chair. Harry was refocused on the pool. When he scanned back and saw Louis at the fence he scowled. He arms were crossed and he lowered his sunglasses on his nose to glare at Louis. Even though he was only two years younger than Harry he felt like a child being scolded. He looked down in shame and kicked the grass and his feet. He glanced back up at Harry and Harry removed his glasses and placed them on top of his head. Harry shook his head and smiled, dimples popping and waved. Louis seemed and waved back excitedly.

“See you in school,” Harry shouted.

Louis straightened up. “Yeah, see you.”

“Looking forward to it. Bye, Louis.”

He knows my name, Louis thought. He knows who I am. 

Later that night, the parents of everyone on the team received a phone call from the pool manager letting them know that their child was banned from the pool for the rest of the summer. It didn’t matter to Louis. 

Harry was looking forward to seeing him in school!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, kudos, and comments. 
> 
> Disclaimer: Harry's choice to not use a mask to perform rescue breathing on Louis would never actually happen today. Lifeguards come very equipped with PPE and usually have them on their person at all times. But obviously that does not work with the story too well:)
> 
> It kinda hurt my little lifeguard heart to write the part where he dismisses it.
> 
> Come say hi to me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/jovialchildalpaca)


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